1 June 2009 inFAMOUS

BAJOInfamous is an open world superhero game, that feeds the star wars fanatic and comic book guy that resides in many of our heats, right from the moment you press start.

JUNGYou are Cole, delivery boy turned accidental hero. After a strange explosion shakes the town's lights out, you find yourself at the centre of it all, and in fact the carrier of the bomb itself.

BAJOIt's one of those movie bombs though, that turns you into an electricity wielding action man who like to climb, zap, and land with a bang. In the wake of the explosion, 3 islands have been taken over by 3 groups all with a mind to rule the town, and destroy you on sight.

JUNGLuckily for you, you're awesome and can deal with most foes with a fatal headshock. In fact, if you're too awesome, the game will promote you to a harder difficulty setting. We felt quite chuffed when that happened, but you don't have to stay on hard if you don't want to. Climbing through the world is a joy, and there's lots of reasons why. You press X to jump, and the game will guide you very towards your next landing pad.

BAJOAnd this guiding isn't intrusive, and you don't even realize the game is helping you. You can grab almost anything and hang on to it, even a train. Even if it's a bare wall, you can use it as a boost to the next foothold at for least a couple of jumps. You're even guided when meleeing, but not to the extent that it feels like an old xmen game. The camera tracking in all this is just excellent and you actually can't walk off a platform without pushing x to jump off, or circle to move down. This is a big deal, and shows the the developer Sucker punch, really thought about their game, and that they're must be hardcore gamers - it adds heaps of control to your character, and it's only now and then you'll get stopped in your tracks because of a small rise in the ground.

JUNGDriving is out of the question, but you can ride train tracks and powerlines or just stand on the hood of a car. Every time you powerup a town, you unlock a new ability. It's always welcome, and often a time saver. For example, just before you reach the second island, you learn to glide which comes in very handy as high ground is your friend.

BAJOYou don't get an AK or m4, but electricity is all you need. You'll mainly be happyzapping,but there's also Electric grenades, shockwaves, a weird Ghostbusters one, and the spectacular joy that is the lightning storm, which is directed using 6axis.

JUNGAbout half a dozen times in the game you'll be given moments where you have infinite juice, which is a chance for Cole to let loose and really show who's boss. It's an excellent reward for the gamer, and we really noticed that ifamous is really good at rewarding you in general.

BAJOMissions are given to you via a headset and GPS, they're also stumbled upon and sometimes civilians who recognize you will just run up to you and ask you to go with them and help a brewing situation. The town is very alive, and as you can see it's in a state of despair and disrepair. You never feel like a mission is starting, but more that you're walking into an event already going on.

JUNGThere was only one side mission we didn't really like, 'counter surveillance' and underground missions can be a bit same-y, but they're tutorials really, to teach you how to use a new power.

BAJOCheckpoints are so forgiving, it made me feel happy inside. Even though it does remove a little from emersion, you don't care because sometimes emersion is painful you know. Heaps of story and side missions have a moral choice that affects your karma, do you take out the reapers or let the cops take a hit and weaken them a bit first, which poster do you want put up around town?

JUNGThe path you choose will give you different abilities, change how people react to you, and also change your appearance and electric colour. If you get too evil, civilians will start throwing rocks. But you're bad anyway, so it doesn't' really pain you to hurl cars at them for their imputance. Some of these moral choice moments have awesome consequences, and we won't spoil it for you but there's a few very clever ones in there. If you're good, it's Blue electricy for you, if you're evil, it's red. Which did you go for Baj?

BAJO zaps Jung in this face.

JUNGRude! Did you ever feel guilty for it?

BAJOI did a bit, hearing your friend talk to you with a quietened and cautious voice after going to the dark side, really drove the choices I made home. I really liked the hanging cover Jung...

JUNGYeah - You can't snap to cover, but you can hide by holding circle near a wall. The safest way to take standard goon down is to hang from a ledge, and zoom right in for a time slowed precision shot. It's a great take on a cover system, and very flexible. You'll need much more than that though, when you start to run into bosses.

BAJOThere's lots of subtle things that make this game great. The action drum beat, and music that creeps in if you do a huge leap...the crows sound effects when you suck someone's life out...If you leap on a pole, you'll slide down a bit when you hit it depending on how much inertia you have. And the way the character moves and interacts with the environment is so fluid, and you can see this standing on stairs or just leaping about.

JUNGIt's all these little things that make you feel like you're really working with the world and not fighting against it. Often in GTA and other open world games you can't really walk too far away from a mission area without resetting it or failing, but here you can use the load-free world to your advantage in a mission, whether it's getting heaps of breathing room, or just climbing up to get the drop on your foes.

BAJOFor once Jung, I actually wanted to complete everything - every stunt, collect every collectable, and do every side mission and the reason is they're genuinely rewarding. The more side missions you do, the more town gets cleared of enemies and when you get to the final island - you really really need to do that, or you're going to get owned just jumping from one building to the next.

JUNGThe enemies and look of the game can get repetitive early on but stick with it to the end as it just gets better and better - there's some real inspiration here in the art and mechanics of the game and the open world feels truly open at times, because you can just pick a direction and start climbing...I'm giving it 9.

BAJOI'd just like to point out very quickly Jung, that flipping cars with your shockwave is one of the most fun things I've done in a game in a long time. I just love the free running, acrobatics, and the whole misunderstood Spiderman feel to the character is fantastic, and Cole a superhero you just end up loving, no matter which path you choose. I'm giving it 9 too.

Lyrium :

CHAMPofCAPUA88 :

15 Nov 2014 10:14:38am

Rating:
One of the best stories in a game I've ever played. The gameplay is a little dated, but still fun. However it's a shame the Karma choices were so black and white (or red and blue?) a little grey area would have been nice. I went down the villainous path, but the problem was the choices were so obviously detestable and without motivation I lost all connection with my character.